Review: The Wild Pear Tree isn't for those in a hurry, but it will reward your patience

There’s a bizarre sequence in the latest drama from Nuri Bilge Ceylan, in which the protagonist, an aspiring writer named Sinan (Dogu Demirkal), gets into a protracted discussion about literature with an older, more established author in a bookshop. The conversation eventually moves outside, and Sinan winds up trapped inside a statue of the Trojan horse – and then it’s revealed that the entire encounter was a dream.

At this point, The Wild Pear Tree seems to appropriate the fable of the Chinese philosopher who dreamed he was a butterfly. Is the rest of the film perhaps the dream of a disappointed writer? Is Ceylan dreaming he’s a Turkish director? Audiences may feel a similar sense of existential dislocation, equal parts disturbing and exciting.

The movie, which clocks in at a shade over three hours, is not one for viewers in a hurry, but it will reward patience. Sinan has just returned from university to his small hometown in Anatolia, and hopes to publish a book about his musings about the region. It doesn’t sound like a bestseller, and he’s having trouble pulling together the cash to make it happen. It doesn’t help that his father (Murat Cemcir), a notorious cheapskate, seems to owe everyone money.

Turkey’s submission for the next foreign-language Academy Awards, The Wild Pear Tree had its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in May, where the biggest complaint seemed to be the speed and volume of the subtitles; this is one of the director’s talkiest films, full of literary references and philosophy.

But it’s a necessary loquaciousness; a protracted scene with an old classmate (Hazar Erguclu), for instance, beautifully illustrates Sinan’s ambitious nature and at the same time his inability to break free from the provincial attitudes he claims to despise. It’s also one of many points where Ceylan allows sound design to operate as a counterpoint to the screenplay – the conversation is backed by sighing breezes, birdsong and, at one point, a bee that rockets between the talkers like a tiny buzzbomb. It’s just one of the fruits of this tree.